My name is Shane "Wyrd" Olivieri, and I'm a dedicated guy who loves games, playing music, and getting out there to golf. I'm also a StarCraft 2 caster, player, and streamer, and most of all, I am passionate about eSports and seeing it grow.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

I play protoss in StarCraft 2. I played protoss in Brood War because I really enjoyed the basic mechanics of the race, like warping in buildings and walking away. The more I played the race in StarCraft 2, the more I fell in love with its seamless build orders, the micro involved, and its gigantic walking laser machines. I think protoss played well is a beautiful thing.

3. Who is your favorite StarCraft 2 player, and why?

My favorite StarCraft 2 player is Chris "HuK" Loranger, a.k.a HuK Norris, a.k.a The Incredible HuK. He's an amazing foreigner and seeing him perform is inspiring. He doesn't hide his emotions. I remember when he was about to win the last match of a particular finals and he was practically dancing in his seat. When he loses, he is humble and really takes it to heart. He's dedicated and he's funny (those Kingston HyperX commercials make my day every time I watch them), and his early rivalry with IdrA was intense and engaging. HuK is someone I always make time to watch, and someone for whom I always cheer my hardest.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

Hands-down, I am most excited about Tempest use replacing Mothership use in PvZ late game. It's no secret that everyone is displeased with the precarious Mothership/Brood Lord and Infestor battle. Tempests are going to add so much dynamic to the late-game, not only engagement-wise, but stylistically. Currently, after 20 minutes, most zergs really only make Brood Lords and Infestors. With the protoss devoting army supply to Tempests, I'm hoping to see a variety of units used by zerg to take on the protoss late-game army (especially speed Hydralisks).

5. What is your spirit animal?

My spirit animal is the beaver. I'm diligent and work hard to reach my goals, and then do a nice, relaxing backstroke when it's all done.

6. How do you think zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base Immortal all-in?

I think Banelings deserve more exploration. Specifically, Banelings dropped from Overlords. When I've executed the all-in, a Baneling drop strategy has annihilated it, especially considering that when the zerg attacks from two fronts, the protoss' forcefields pin his army in one spot. It can't escape the death that is the Baneling bomb. The zerg can transition into roaches from this at the cost of delaying +1 or speed, and if they misread the protoss' build and it turns out it was not an all-in, nothing hurts an enemy economy like Baneling drop harass.

My Name is Nathan Fabrikant and I am a 19-year-old High Masters American StarCraft 2 Player.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

I picked Terran back after Beta ended when TLO switched as I played random because of him as well. I love it simply because I feel Terran rewards multitasking and choosing strategies more than any other race.

3. Who is your favorite Starcraft 2 player and why?

My favorite player has always been Liquid TLO. His charisma and dedication while enjoying the game are the reasons I work so hard myself, and even though he no longer plays Terran he still represents the top of foreigner work ethic.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

From both a player and spectator perspective, nothing excites me more than the Tempest and Oracle providing a more interesting Lategame PvZ experience. Variety is what makes strategy games fun.

5. What is your spirit animal?

Most definitely a regular house cat, possibly of the Tabby variety.

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in?

I honestly feel the key to dealing with any of these types of pushes is not only scouting, but learning to play the positions on maps where you can best catch units out in the open. Force-fields are what make the build work so well and if you can balance your greed at the start of the game I think it's more than possible to make the push run out of steam by the time it hits your base, much like a stim-marauder/hellion All-in in TvZ. I would almost equate the importance of map control to that of the 111-era where if the Terran sieged in your natural you were almost guaranteed to lose.

My name is Jay “Jmorrow” Todorow, and I am an aspiring StarCraft II commentator, Ralph Lauren Polo enthusiast, old-school RPG fanatic, and acronym aficionado. When not doing things I enjoy, I am usually placating Apple consumers over the phone.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

Coming into Wings of Liberty from Brood War, I played Protoss for the first year or so but have recently switched to playing Zerg, finding its defensive, reactionary style a better fit.

3. Who is your favorite StarCraft 2 player and why?

Axslav is my favorite StarCraft 2 player simply because he is so well-mannered and approachable; he's always willing to talk to fans, even after a loss. His stream is also one of the most informative.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

It will be nice to see new talent coming into the scene, hopefully bringing with them new ways of thinking and innovative play styles.

5. What is your spirit animal?

Spiritually, I am most like a bear. I prefer the outdoors, specifically forest areas, where I can steer clear of noise and drama but remain close with a tight-knit group of friends. People may find me intimidating, but inside I am cuddly and quite considerate. I am a hard-worker and like to earn what I get, but when I need my rest, nothing can wake me.

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in?

It's interesting to think of all the builds players have managed to overcome since the release of Wing of Liberty; I feel this build will be the same. The key is to have good positioning as far away from your base as you can, baiting force fields when possible and leaving yourself room to reinforce.

My name is Buddha, and I love to teach, learn, play, and cast the game we all love, Starcraft 2. I hope you find my casts energetic and humorous, and that they may inspire you to view the game in the most informative way possible

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

I play random, and I enjoy the variety I get. I always tell my opponent my race for the most fair game possible, and love to learn strategies on every side.

3. Who is your favorite Starcraft 2 player and why?

My favorite Starcraft 2 player is Leenock. For such a young guy, he really shows creativity, patience, understanding, and a desire to win with whatever strategy he has to use. He truly embodies the complete Starcraft player.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

I am really looking forward to how the Viper is going to work and change the mid and late game; the beta is still evolving so rapidly there is no set meta-game. New developments should be incredibly interesting to work out. Most of all I'm hoping Heart of the Swarm brings back many of the players who lost interest in Wings of Liberty, and can hopefully rekindle their passion.

5. What is your spirit animal?

According to an online quiz I'm a wolf. Wolf is cool, but I'm part Asian, I'm always happy, and I sit around in one spot all day; I'm a Panda.

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in?

They will switch to Protoss.

In all seriousness though, The 2 base immortal all-in has become a staple of PvZ, with Parting (a large part of popularizing this build) going so far as to say he will never lose a PvZ again. This all-in is incredibly popular, even at the highest of pro-level play, and Zergs are still struggling to beat it in a lot of cases. The truth is, the Immortal sentry all-in is almost a completely blind all-in. All the Protoss player will be scouting with is his probe and (typically) a stalker or 2. It won't tell them the drone count, tech, unit count (as the build comes to fruition), or unit composition; mostly it only tells the Protoss that there is a 3rd base for Zerg. I think the eventual end of this build all comes down to scouting and just knowing how to beat it. The best solution I've found is to make sure you see the 3rd and 4th gas timings (6:00 and 6:30) with a robo (6:00). Once you see the 4th gas go down, send in an overlord (or 2) and if you see a robo and 4 total gates around 7:00, you need to stop droning around 50 and just start making roaches and lings. You need to force out forcefields from the Protoss player as they're walking across the map so they'll have no energy when they get to your 3rd base choke. The 3rd immortal comes out at around 9:00, so be ready for the move out around 9:20 (typically reinforced with a warp prism). If you have the opportunity, target down immortals and sentries, but do your best to just stall the push and keep reinforcing. Basically you are defensively going all-in because your opponent’s ability to transition and expand to a 3rd is almost null with this build.

1. Please introduce yourself in 2 sentences or less. My name's Tom, and I adore the infinite number of puzzles and challenges that competitive StarCraft provides. Nothing brings me more satisfaction than being able to share this adoration with others, and creating a solid, entertaining, ever-improving production on which to frame it.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it? When I first touched Brood War, my infallible logic was that Protoss was the best because I retained my probe after warping in a building, and I didn't have to remember to pull my probe back to the mineral line once the building was done warping in. I stuck with Protoss because I came to enjoy having very few, very strong units to be responsible for, and doing everything in my power to retain them. You are forced to trade efficiently. Fights are a lot more thrilling when the stakes on losing each individual unit are incredibly high. The adrenaline rush in trying to save that one hero unit as it approaches death, and the glee when it stays alive to fight another day can't be matched.

Not to mention the Warpgate mechanic is really unique and a little mind bending. The fact that unit production is front-loaded and reinforcement can happen anywhere provides a unique puzzle that neither of the other races can provide. A lot of creativity can come from playing with these mechanics.

3. Who is your favorite Starcraft 2 player and why? Without question, my favorite player is NaNiwa. I admire his work ethic and his drive. His nerves might get to him, and his attitude might be flawed, but that just makes him human. This serves as a wonderful reminder that even as a human, I can accomplish the things that I set out to accomplish. NaNiwa's drive doesn't only come from wanting money - It seems like his drive is a lot more internal than that. He wants to be the best, and he'll stop at nothing until he achieves it. I want to be able to live to that standard. He's a testament to the strength of will power.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm? The most exciting thing about HotS is the fact that everything gets torn down to the ground. We're basically hitting the reset button on everything we've worked to build up to this point. It's as if we've worked for years to build this incredible LEGO AT-AT, and we're about to smash it into pieces to rebuild it from the ground up. We're going to be hitting the power button on the console, pulling out the game cartridge, blowing into it to clear out the dust, popping it back in and turning the game back on. HotS is going to be surprising and new.

I don't know who Sue Dawe is, and I don't know what inspired her to draw this picture of me. We must have met somewhere on the spiritual plane. I am friendly and majestic, and I love you. I am black and white in perfect balance - like the yin and yang of macro and micro. Like a well made bagel, I can appear hard and fearsome on the outside but I am really soft and chewy on the inside.

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in? If I had to take a guess, their best chance is to start sacrificing Parting figurines before major tournaments.

We've already seen Zerg players start heading in the direction of holding off Immortal all-ins. More and more, we're seeing Zerg players delay taking their third base in favor of teching up a little bit harder. They might head towards an earlier Roach Warren, and towards a quicker Lair. Their armies are starting to be more Ling heavy than Roach heavy, and having Ling speed alongside a couple flanks on their opponents army seems to be essential in either killing their opponent's Sentries, or forcing the Protoss to spend all of their force field energy.

They might try to control the pace of the attack before it hits their base. By throwing Lings at their opponent's army while it's moving across the field, they can try to kill off as many Sentries as possible before the Protoss player can actually get across the map. They have to force their opponent to either be low on Sentries, or at the very least, low on Sentry energy.

The scariest thing about this particular Protoss push is that even if a Zerg player knows that's it's coming, it's still difficult to hold off. Trying to balance droning with army production, and getting units out in time to be in position can be a very touchy thing, and this balance is a skill to master in and of itself.

My name is Tim Frazier, I enjoy being happy while making others around me feel the same. I describe my character traits as being self-less, hard-working, laid back and always willing to lend a helping hand.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

I play Zerg, I started with Zerg when i began playing/casting Sc2. Zerg at the time was considered the harder race mechanically by community standards. The added bonus of needing to understand your opponent to beat them was appealing to me. By learning how to beat the other races, I also learned how to cast them since I had a strong understanding of how they played.

3. Who is your favorite Starcraft 2 player and why?

I get a ton of slack for answering this question with such a generic answer. Idra, is by far my favorite player. Idra brings storyline's to a cast, he was the player that I latched onto when trying to figure out what race I wanted to play. I followed him everywhere he went, every tournament Idra went to, the more I learned about the game and other players, thus increasing my love for Starcraft 2. Every tournament Idra is in, I argue that that specific tournament is his comeback and he will win. One day, I will be right, and I will be seen as the "BEST CASTER IN THE WORLD."

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

I am really excited for Protoss to have more options especially in the early game. Whenever I am casting Protoss, I just feel like they are so useless early game. They have a decent amount of all-ins or aggressive play, but they feel gimmicky and not really that fluent when it comes to transitioning into mid game without doing some kind of damage. The Oracle seems to be a fantastic piece of art created by Blizzard, I do not have access to the HOTS beta, and have not had time to watch too much of the game. It does however, look quite nice from what I have seen. Plus, shiny new graphics for the viewers eyes is always nice for the spectator experience.

5. What is your spirit animal?

You can't possess one animal as your spirit, it won't work out well for you. You must take all the spirits of the animal kingdom to be successful in life. That of the Bottle-nosed Dolphin, house cat, fox, eagle, and the almighty octopus. Reference:

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in?

Zergs seem to have actually made a number of steps towards shutting down the 2-base immortal all-in. Players lately have really focused on going double evo to hammer out double upgrades accordingly, usually level 1 carapace and melee attacks are chosen. More zergs have been going triple hatch into double gas while grabbing speed as early as they can. Zergling speed coupled with upgrades are fantastic for stabbing fear into protoss in the early game, they have to be decisive and very sure of themselves when pushing across the middle of the map. Run bys, sentry snipes and sniping off probes have become instrumental in slowing down the all-in. The longer Zerg slows down the push to the point where they have about 65 drones, increases the chances of them engaging a Protoss army and trading pretty nicely.

Another tactic that I feel that is very quickly becoming more apparent for Zerg is the use of creep spread. The farther you extend it, the more you slow down your protoss opponent. No race likes to attack on creep, it naturally slows them down. Players like TLO have started picking up an interesting tactic. Instead of throwing down a 3rd base around 4:30-4:50, he will toss his hatchery down in the middle of the map, cancel it, start a creep tumor on the left behind creep and then follow up with the 3rd base slowed down by merely 15 seconds. This allows you to get your creep spread almost 3/4 of away across the map before the all-in heads towards you (Normally, zerg can get it to about halfway if they are really focused on it). With creep spread, you gain vision and thus are able to slow down toss, snipe sentries and immortals, as well as bait Force fields. This tactic coupled with the added knoweldge of being sure the all-in is coming allows zerg to engage on their terms with the right amount of units.

Personally I feel that the contaminate spell from overseers are underused in the match-up. If Zerg were to make 3 overseers and chain contaminate immortals from being produced, it would slow down the all-in significantly.

My name is Nour "PrOmise" Moussa, 22 years old, and from the San Francisco bay area.

Although there is some tough competition ahead, I know that my hard work, outgoing personality, and my ability to cooperate with others is perfect for this job.

2. What race do you play? Why do you like it?

I am a Protoss player that is currently sitting around the mid masters level. I like playing this race because of its ability to dictate the pace of the game, and the strength of its calculated timings.

3. Who is your favorite StarCraft 2 player and why?

This might sound like a cliche answer, but it is TSLHyuN. I had the opportunity of setting him up with a show match right when he transitioned from SC1 to SC2. Since then, I have become friends with him, and have seen him grow so much as a player in so little time.

4. What are you most looking forward to in Heart of the Swarm?

I am excited to see how the meta game is going to shift. Currently in WoL, it seems like the game has basically been figured out. I'm hoping that the new units, abilities, and spells will have players lean toward more creative and interesting builds.

5. What is your spirit animal?

The California Bear, obviously...

6. How do you think Zergs will learn to overcome the 2-base immortal all in?

Currently, I don't think there is any "correct" way of dealing with this very powerful push.I believe with proper scouting information, and enough delayed time for the attack, 2 base muta/ling into a later 3rd expansion seems very possible.

I don't follow Eon quite as much anymore, but when I was learning the game in lower leagues, I found his youtube videos very professional and helpful.For quite some time I thought he was probably the best amateur caster and wondered why he never showed up at any events.He did some casting on the recent lone star event, where I thought he did a really nice job on the 2nd stream.

He really seems like someone who has invested a lot into the community and helping the sport grow, as well as practices a lot to improve and be a good caster. Definitely someone deserving of a professional casting opportunity.

I really appreciate all the support you guys have been giving me, I'm sorry that my Siberia mic derped during my cast but I don't have any other substitutes available at the time of recording this. I only mean the best and I hope you guys enjoy my casting